Fernando Torres somehow puts the ball wide of an open goal during Chelsea's defeat at Manchester United. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Fernando Torres doubled his goal tally for Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday yet the striker cannot escape from the one that got away. That miss continues to dominate the fallout from Manchester United's 3-1 win, with the champions' own official website even getting in on the act. "I packed my son off to school this morning with instructions to recreate the moment in the playground as soon as possible!" wrote Stewart Gardner on manutd.com on Monday.

There is no snickering in the Chelsea camp, only support for Torres and a determination to make sure the Premier League's most expensive, and scrutinised, striker is not judged much longer for his 83rd-minute rounding of David de Gea and subsequent slicing of the ball as an empty net awaited.

"I keep saying the same thing; I can see every time the guy is improving," said the Chelsea goalkeeper, Petr Cech. "At Stoke he had a brilliant game. He didn't score but was unlucky. Against [Bayer] Leverkusen he didn't score but created both [goals]. At United he created a huge chance for Ramires. Then he scored a great goal, got himself another opportunity. I don't know what happened but he didn't score that. But he created a lot and his movement was there. You can see it."

Torres's performance at Old Trafford was certainly encouraging, with the 27-year-old displaying strength, sharpness and a surge of pace that has generally been lacking since his £50m transfer from Liverpool in January. His goal in the 46th minute was also expertly taken, with the Spaniard lifting the ball over De Gea from an acute angle having perfectly read Nicolas Anelka's through-ball.

But it is the failures which linger in the mind – Torres failed to convert another relatively straightforward effort prior to his late miss – and a feeling that they better represent his form.

Statistics would bear that out. Compared with six of the league's other leading forwards (Robin van Persie, Luis Suárez, Wayne Rooney, Sergio Agüero, Edin Dzeko and Emmanuel Adebayor), Torres has produced the fewest shots on target this season (four), has the lowest shooting accuracy rate (40%), made the fewest amount of key passes (three) and maintains the worst final-third pass-completion rate (67%).

"I'm not worried at all. He will score goals," Cech said. "What everybody needs to remember is just how well he played for the whole game and also the great goal he did score."

Cech is also upbeat about Chelsea's prospects in general despite the team, who face Fulham in the Carling Cup on Wednesday, being five points behind United in third place having now suffered their first loss of the season.

"The score doesn't reflect how we played. You might look at 3-1 and say it was an easy game for them. But the difference was they took their chances and we didn't. In the second half, from the way we played, we did enough to get something out of the game. We have to be positive. Every game we're improving."

André Villas-Boas, the Chelsea manager, is unlikely to face any disciplinary action from the Football Association in regards to comments he made in defence of Ashley Cole's second-half challenge on Javier Hernández, which Sir Alex Ferguson described as "shocking".

Villas-Boas claimed Cole, who was booked by the referee Phil Dowd and will not face any further action from the FA, would not have been so rash had he received greater protection during the game from the assistant referees, Glenn Turner and Adam Watts. "Maybe he wouldn't get sent off [sic] if the linesman does his work," said the manager. "He would have been less emotionally drained."

The FA has confirmed Cole will not face further action for the challenge and are understood to also be relaxed about Villas-Boas's comments.